The Spring Career Fair and You!
UNL's Spring Career Fair has arrived. The biggest day for Computer Science and Computer Engineering students is this Tuesday, February 5, though many of the representatives are also here on Wednesday. The time is 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the City Campus Union. My message to all my advisees is to check it out, even if you are just a freshman seeing programming for the first time. Get experience working the floor and visiting with the representatives BEFORE you are seriously looking. Sophomore year is not too early for many students to find significant internship opportunities.
Go to http://www.unl.edu/careers/springfair and look under "Student Information" for complete information. "Participating Employers" takes you to a searchable database while "Day 1" and "Day 2" provide handy pdf packets. Check out the link to "Tips for the Career Fair" for guidelines on how to prepare and what to expect.
I go to the career fairs regularly, spending hours talking to the representatives, some of whom are former students of mine. My goal is to find out what their expansion plans may be, their needs for hiring permanent employees and arrangements for internships, the skill sets they are looking for, and more. At the Fall Career Fair, I estimated the immediate need was for over 700 computing graduates, which is about 10 times the number of graduates we will produce this year! Most of those companies are back again this week.
There are the usual big-name software corporations such as Microsoft, major specialized information technology companies including Cerner and Epic, and firmware/hardware companies like Garmin. In addition there are a host of excellent smaller companies right in the Lincoln/Omaha area.
For those with the inspiration and patience to look around among all the 200+ companies being represented at the Spring Career Fair, there will be some wonderful opportunities. Nearly all of the companies, regardless of the product, have computing needs. Some work is farmed out, some have other sites where it is done, some have it done locally. Land O Lakes showed up last fall looking for programmers and are back again this week. Their challenge, along with other companies, is to draw the attention of students to hear their unique advantages.
Occasionally there is a substantial computing component that might easily be missed. For instance, a couple years ago I checked on John Deere, the tractor manufacturers. I had recently helped my brother calibrate a fancy device that utilized GPS and interfaced to his planter. Indeed, John Deere was looking for Computer Engineers to work on this technology. Union Pacific has massive computing needs in monitoring the entire rail system and scheduling just-in-time shipping with its clients.
Below is my list of must visit companies, which is based on past experiences and current promotions. But it may be wise to not neglect the gems I might have missed!
Questions? Come find me! I will gladly share whatever information I pick up.
Charles Riedesel
Chief Undergraduate Advisor
Computer Science & Engineering
259 Avery Hall
402 472-3486
chuckr@unl.edu
ACI Worldwide
Avionics Interface Technologies
Cerner (big hirer of software developers in KC)
Cetak
DST Systems (KC)
EF Johnson (local)
Epic Systems (big hirer of software developers in Wisconsin)
Experion
Fiserv (local)
Gallup (Omaha)
Garmin (also here for information session Feb 12!, big hirer software/firmware)
Hamilton Telecommunications
Hayneedle (local)
Hudl (local)
Humanex Ventures (was here with info session last week)
Hyland Software (local)
Land O Lakes (northern mid-west)
Microsoft
Netsmart Technologies
Peace Corps (guess what - not local!)
Pen-Link (local)
Reinke (contacted us directly last week!)
Sandhills Publishing (local)
Software Technologies
Sogeti USA (Omaha and more, Paris HQ)
Solutionary
Streck (Omaha)
Union Pacific (Omaha)